Sport
What English cricket needs now
You couldn’t ask for a more amiable man than Rob Key to run English cricket: affable, shrewd and universally liked,…
Where Eddie Jones is going wrong
Rugby Union, bloody hell. We’ve got to talk about Eddie, but before that, what about something much cheerier? Just when…
Why do Russian tennis stars need to condemn Putin?
Nigel Huddleston is Under-Secretary of State for Sport, Tourism, Heritage and Civil Society, hardly the biggest job in government. Yet…
Rest in peace, Shane Warne
Headingly, July 22nd 1993 and the opening day of the fourth test that summer between England and Australia. This, as…
Is football hooliganism on its way back?
Forty-odd years ago a friend, a Liverpool supporter, somewhat unwisely took his girlfriend to Elland Road for a Leeds match…
China breaks new records in the Surveillance Olympics
Never before have the participants in a major sporting event been so closely monitored as in this Winter Olympics in…
Why everyone should be shouting about Dave ‘Rocket’ Ryding
As we digest another Ashes thrashing for England’s cricketers in Australia, and wonder whether the 1966 World Cup victory will…
Some (tentative) reasons to be cheerful in 2022
Someone sent me a job advert recently for a Junior Research Fellowship at Queen’s College, Oxford. It states: ‘The Queen’s…
The year sport and politics became inseparable
Sport and politics have always been intertwined, but this was the year they became joined at the hip. Yorkshire racism;…
England’s shameful betrayal of Pakistan
Any English person with a love of cricket knows life has its ups and downs. But until now we have…
Barça’s golden age and its ruling triumvirate
Even against our better judgment we tend to imbue our sporting heroes with characteristics they may not possess. This can…
The absurdity of tennis players’ toilet breaks
Forgive the personal question, but how long does it take you to, you know, go to the gents, ladies, non-binary?…
I took my wife to a Millwall match – and it didn’t go well
The fighting started just as Caroline turned right on to the Uxbridge Road after emerging from QPR’s stadium on Loftus…
The Olympics have become a celebration of human frailty
Coronis Embracing one’s vulnerability seems to have replaced the higher, faster, stronger ethos of the Olympics. The very frailty that…
Why Russia’s Olympic punishment backfired
The Tokyo Olympics are over and fifth place in the medals table went to the ‘ROC’, the Russian Olympic Committee.…
Should Simone Biles listen to Novak Djokovic?
I’ve always been a Spectator reader, so I’m delighted to be writing a diary about the Olympics from Tokyo. My…
Why do anglers get so hooked?
The other day a friend asked me what a lascar was. Fair enough: it’s not a word you come across…
The hateful Hundred is putting cash before cricket
This slick new tournament will ruin cricket
Yes, they're deplorable – but those football tweets don't prove Britain is racist
There are two certainties whenever England’s football team plays; one that is long-established and the other a recent phenomenon. Players…
Do the England team play football, footer, footie – or soccer?
I have never been a soccer mom, described in the Washington Post as ‘the overburdened, middle-income working mother who ferries…
The real sporting star of this summer
Think of a punishing distance for a bike race. Double it, multiply by ten, throw in two of the world’s…
Why everyone should try streaking
Streaking is a great British tradition
My problem with the Euros
I’m struggling to work up much enthusiasm about England’s progress in the Euros. I know, I know, Tuesday night’s victory…
Staged: a handful of VIP events is no substitute for normality
Uncertainty is crippling our cultural life
The true cost of theatre closures
It turns out that if there’s one thing more expensive than making theatre, it’s not making it. Empty buildings haemorrhage…
